


Adversity Breeds Strength

by Fey_Nikola



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bonding, Converstations on the Watchtower, Gen, Timeline? What Timeline?, Young Justice Anon Meme, tw: talk of past slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-07
Updated: 2012-11-07
Packaged: 2017-11-18 03:52:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fey_Nikola/pseuds/Fey_Nikola
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post current canon. Beyond that? Your guess is as good as mine.</p><p>The future Impulse came from isn't as pleasant as what he said. The past Starfire is coming from is worse than what she's admitted. Bart already knows, and thinks she might want to talk as much as he maybe, kinda, sort of - yeah okay, really badly wants to. So he asks her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adversity Breeds Strength

**Author's Note:**

> (From this prompt: http://yjanon-meme.livejournal.com/477.html?thread=536285#t536285 )

They stood together, looking down at the Earth as the sun slowly set behind the planet. The Watchtower was quiet at this time of night, only Black Canary manning the Emergency Comms and one of the Green Lanterns still up in the Media Room. Bart shifted from foot to foot, eyes darting from the deck to the alien princess to the Zeta platforms behind them. Starfire, by contrast, remained poised and calm. Her hands were loose at her sides, and her head was tilted slightly as she considered him with her solid green eyes. Jaime said they were kinda weird. Bart knew they were totally crash.

He was nearly vibrating through his clothes; he’d been so excited when he heard she’d finally arrived. She’d explained the short version of her story right after she’d gotten to Earth, so it wasn’t even something he’d have to explain away knowing. Telling Starfire that her story was one of the ones that’d kept him going… 

She shifted, her left hand flexing. Just enough to get a speedster’s attention. He nearly bounced with the thought that she’d known others before. “The higher you hold your head, the harder they try to break you down.”

“Yeah.” Bart scratched the back of his neck, grinning wryly. “Sometimes it’s just easier to keep your mouth shut and take it. Hope they get bored, you know?”

Her chin went up, shoulders tensed, sharply inhaled through her nose. Bart waited. He wasn’t good at patience, but he could fake it well enough.

Starfire exhaled slowly, slowly clenching her right hand into a fist. As she raised it, it gained a transparent green halo. By the time she held it up at her eye level, it was nearly opaque and spitting small green sparks. Bart laced his fingers behind his back and started twiddling them. She took another deep breath, and when she let it out the glow surrounding her fist dissipated. She let her hand fall back to her side, and Bart thought that might be the first time he saw her be uncontrolled.

“I know… I should not be ashamed.” She started, and Bart could finally see how tired she was. “Even the strongest warrior cannot last forever.”

“But it still feels terrible, huh?” He scuffed his foot against the floor. Bart thought the clunk of it echoed a little. “Giving up, even if it’s only for just that one second?”

Her chin tipped down and her hair fell forward a little and she whispered, “Yes.”

He was still for the longest time. Licked his lips. Cleared his throat. He wasn’t sure whether he had expected this from _the_ Starfire or not. Time to change the subject. “What did you do? Once they were done, I mean. Once they left you alone.”

A smile tugged her mouth up for a moment. “I sang. I looked to the stars.” She opened her eyes and turned her head to him. “I told myself stories.”

Bart grinned back. “Where they made one stupid mistake and you grabbed a weapon, or unlocked your collar, and led an uprising against all of them?” He waved his arms and her smile grew.

“And the battle was hard and bloody, but you fought your way to the overlord’s throne, put your hand to his whimpering face and showed no mercy when you blasted his skull into vapor.” She gestured with her hand, but there was no glow so Bart just laughed and kept going.

“And then everyone cheered your name, and everybody came together and rebuilt, and it turned out that a lot of people you’d been told were dead were actually just in hiding, and they had all been fighting back in secret and now that you’d saved everybody they could come back again!”

“And all would be well.” Her voice was wistful as she turned back to look out the massive windows again.

“Everything would be okay.” He was surprised by how thick his voice was.

Starfire blinked slowly, and maybe a tear fell but Bart wasn’t really paying attention. “This is not what I had envisioned. It is certainly not what I expected.” Bart looked up at her, standing tall and proud, looking up into space. “But it is acceptable.”

He snorted slightly. “Yeah, it’s not half-bad.”

Bart pointed to Orion’s Belt and started naming stars. Koriand’r smiled back and started naming her own.


End file.
